No One Smiling at Kool Smiles

There are 667 comments on the
WXIA Atlanta
story from Aug 6, 2007, titled No One Smiling at Kool Smiles.
In it, WXIA Atlanta reports that:

Tens of thousands of Georgia children may soon lose their dentists. A major provider of dental services in Georgia, Kool Smiles, with ten dentists offices across the state, is suddenly losing two, big contracts ...

The reason these CMO's are doing away with Kool Smiles is purely money driven. They want more for themselves. It's very evident that they do not give a damn about undeserved children. Knowing full and well that these children will not find other providers. How can they sleep at night?

This is terrible. My kids dentist is not a Kool Smile dentist, but childrens dentist's are hard to come by. Even if you find one, they probably are not accepting new patients. There are more of them in the Atlanta Area than there were 8yrs ago, but still. Many of them don't accept Medicaid or Peachcare and their significant others like Wellcare. This is bad.

Typical managed care companies. It is all about cutting costs and denying services to make money for themselves. St. Joseph's Hospital's pathology laboratory isn't approved by most insurance companies and if you are a patient at the hospital you will end up paying a fortune just for lab results (I owe over $2000 to the lab alone after cancer surgeries). Insurance companies aren't in business to care for the health of their clients - but to care for their bottom line. We need a better system.

I don't know the reason, but I am so happy to know no one else who has Wellcare will be fooled into going to Koolsmiles again! I wish they had pulled them a month ago so we would not have taken my grandson. I hope they do go out of business!!! I don't know what kind of dentists they are (we weren't allowed to know) but they did provide one of the most traumatic events of my daughter, grandson, and my lives. We had no plans to ever go back, anyway, but I wish it had not been an option in the first place!

Oh, and for Tex. We do work. We don't have insurance because we can't afford the extra $600.00 per month that doesn't include dental, anyway. You don't have to worry about your tax dollars covering my grandson's bills. My husband, daughters, son-inlaws', sisters, aunts', uncles', brother-in-laws', sister-in-laws', mine, and I can keep naming are more than enough - thank you very much!

The reason these CMO's are doing away with Kool Smiles is purely money driven. They want more for themselves. It's very evident that they do not give a damn about undeserved children. Knowing full and well that these children will not find other providers. How can they sleep at night?

they don't care. "managed care" means the manager gets the money. there should be NO government payment for healthcare or dental care. when you don't have to buy it yourself, you don't appreciate the cost or the value of the service. the government can give tax breaks to the working poor so they can chose to purchase health/dental care if they want, instead of a big screen tv.

Oh, and for Tex. We do work. We don't have insurance because we can't afford the extra $600.00 per month that doesn't include dental, anyway. You don't have to worry about your tax dollars covering my grandson's bills. My husband, daughters, son-inlaws', sisters, aunts', uncles', brother-in-laws', sister-in-laws', mine, and I can keep naming are more than enough - thank you very much!

Just another reason to implement socialized medicine. But of course if we done that the doctors, insurance companies and politicians would loose too much money.

Hey YEP, you left out me! I would lose a lot of money too and I'm not a doctor, insurance executive or a politician!

I'm the guy whose pocket your trying to get your hands in so you don't have to pay for you and your families own health care!

Support for socialized medicine is one of the primary reasons I vote AGAINST a candidate. Despite it's flaws and inequities, both real and perceived, the U.S. health care systemis second to none. Why do you think that lawyer in the recent TB case busted his fanny to get BACK to the United States for treatment?

Don't destroy a hugely successful medical system because there are those too lazy to provide for their own health insurance.

We could always be like Canada and have free health care (for those that can live long enough to actually get an appointment.......sorry major illness or critical wound victims :( we can't see you today, come back in about a year and a half, but if it makes you feel any better, it's free).

To Concerned Ga Citizen. No one else does pay my bills. We pay our own doctor bills, and since we don't have insurance we don't see a dentist. I simply resent people who do have access to money or insurance saying we are lazy or stupid for allowing our 22 mo. old to recieve medical care from tax money we pay instead of keeping him from health care.

To Concerned Ga Citizen. No one else does pay my bills. We pay our own doctor bills, and since we don't have insurance we don't see a dentist. I simply resent people who do have access to money or insurance saying we are lazy or stupid for allowing our 22 mo. old to recieve medical care from tax money we pay instead of keeping him from health care.

but you're missing the point. if the "government" helps you pay your bills, then you are stealing money from me. you don't need to have insurance to see a dentist. they take cash, check or charge.

This is terrible.Once again OUR beloved Country has dropped the ball. It is ALL about saving money,but when are We going to save OUR children and OURselves? What's even worst is the amount of notice that the employees were given...NONE!!!

The insurance companies providing care to Georgia Medicaid children have made an atrocious attempt to cut costs by cutting access to care to our children. I've been a Medicaid provider for over 35 years and I've never seen any thing like this. These groups cut off new applications of dentists in Georgia wishing to actually provide care to our children.This is an abomination is totally bottom line driven. If they cannot efficiently provide care at the hugely reduced fees that they have forced on Georgia dental providers then the State needs to step back and review the horrible decision to turn over Georgia tax payers money to entities that simply have the bottom line in mind and actually report to their stockholders rather than the State or the children they supposedly are covering.I do not know why Kool Smiles has been dropped. I do know that some of the large coporate providers tend to take the exams, cleanings, and xrays and the patients end finding getting comprehensive care with these large corporate providers difficult. Providers in the general dental community are left to deal with emergency care only to find that all xrays and exam fees have been siphoned off by the big corporate companies and the dentist in private practice is stuck taking a beating at fees that are already ridiculously low. A large part of the care done initially by the large corporate companies are done by auxilliaries and one dentist can clear a huge number of patients in a day doing only exams while lower paid employees are doing the bulk of the work.When comprehensive care is needed, it must be done by higher paid dentists and often is put off. We are seeing that too much and what is going to happen if the State does not get it's head out of the sand, there will be no providers for our children.What we have here is large corporate entities fighting over the small amount of monies available for dental care of children in Georgia. This is a bottom line issue for Kool Smiles and the insurance companies managing the Medicaid money.This is a personal opinion and I have had no dealings with Kool Smiles. I have with other corporate providers. Kool Smiles may be totally innocent of these practices and if they are, removing them from the system is just another stinking way for these insurance companies to make a buck with our tax money at the expense of our children from low income families.

well its pretty easy to understand. Here is how it works. The state pays money to the federal gov. Who then distributes that money to these insurance companies like peachcare and the other one. The money is there to re-imburse the clinics that provide the care to these children. After the money is handed out if there is anything left because a child did not go to the dentist, it is the insurance companies to keep as profit. So what is happening is since Kool Smiles is so good, more children are going meaning less profits for the insurance companies. So their solution, cancel the contract with KS so the children simply dont seek dental care and the companies reep the profits. Dont let yourself be fooled by the stupid comments. There is no other providers for Medicaid dental care for children in GA. So these children will not be going and lose their care. I am a person who is not a medicaid supporter, I dont like any gov involvment and believe parents should provide. But this is just wrong in so many ways. Cutting off care to increase profits is the wrong way to do this. Its like the hospital closing its doors to patients but still receive gov. money for taking care of patients. This is a matter of greed and stealing. This is really dumb.

Ok a bit off topic but not much. Socialized medicine is not he answer to this. Take a look at any military or veterens hospital and you will get an idea of what free healthcare in the US would be like. long lines, poor healthcare, and dirty rooms. If you aint dead its not an emergency. Thats socialized medicine.

The knee jerk reaction is to say free care for everyone. That is not the answer. The answer is obviously you want less poor people so they are less dependant on gov support. But you will always have the poor, so thats mute. The answer here is to go after the one problem we have in this country, insurance companies. If those insurance companies wont provide the money to the providers like they are supposed to, cut off the money flow to them and give it to someone else. Invalidate the current contracts they have with them and write better ones so that people have a choice. Attacking, through the law not physically, the leaders of these companies and get them out of there and replace them with ones who have the interest of the customers in mind not a profit.

Its not an overhaul of the healthcare system or a change to socialized medicine that is needed. Its a change in leadership and ideas. These companiesare run by greedy out of touch CEO's and VP's that care only about the dollar and when they will be taking their next ski trip. Its not class envy afterall everyone wants to be rich, its common sense. Nobody with a heart or a soul can honestly stand there and say "Lets cut off dental care to 70k children so we can make more money eventhough we are reeping billions of dollars in profits already." I point to how Truet Cathy and how he runs Chick-fil-a to show you how a company should be run. Its that simple. Get rid of the greed and things will improve.

Hey Cobb Resident, I provide healthcare for my family. But there are some who cannot. Look at the cost of drugs in Canada as compared to the US. Look at doctors taking pay offs from insurance companies to change their patients to a generic drug. I am sorry that you disagree with me but that is your right, but I still think socialized medicine is the way to go.

Ok a bit off topic but not much.Socialized medicine is not he answer to this. Take a look at any military or veterens hospital and you will get an idea of what free healthcare in the US would be like. long lines, poor healthcare, and dirty rooms. If you aint dead its not an emergency. Thats socialized medicine.The knee jerk reaction is to say free care for everyone. That is not the answer. The answer is obviously you want less poor people so they are less dependant on gov support. But you will always have the poor, so thats mute. The answer here is to go after the one problem we have in this country, insurance companies. If those insurance companies wont provide the money to the providers like they are supposed to, cut off the money flow to them and give it to someone else. Invalidate the current contracts they have with them and write better ones so that people have a choice. Attacking, through the law not physically, the leaders of these companies and get them out of there and replace them with ones who have the interest of the customers in mind not a profit.Its not an overhaul of the healthcare system or a change to socialized medicine that is needed. Its a change in leadership and ideas. These companiesare run by greedy out of touch CEO's and VP's that care only about the dollar and when they will be taking their next ski trip. Its not class envy afterall everyone wants to be rich, its common sense. Nobody with a heart or a soul can honestly stand there and say "Lets cut off dental care to 70k children so we can make more money eventhough we are reeping billions of dollars in profits already." I point to how Truet Cathy and how he runs Chick-fil-a to show you how a company should be run. Its that simple. Get rid of the greed and things will improve.

Amen Brother! Maybe you are right. Socialized medicine may not be the answer, but something needs to be done and as long as our elected officials are taking campaign donations from insurance companies nothing is going to change.

Tell me when this thread is updated:

Add your comments below

Please note by submitting this form you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Service and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Be polite.
Inappropriate posts may be removed by the moderator. Send us your feedback.